Monday, July 18, 2005

Day 21 – Distance: 130 km
Drumheller to Youngstown, AB

We honestly tried to get out earlier, but it seems no matter what, we can’t leave before 9:00. I was awake by 5:00, but didn’t want to waken the others as it had been so late the night before. In any event, we all took off; Monique saying she would rather go at her own pace and take lots of photos on the way. There was a long 3 km climb leaving town, then it was “prairie” again. I won’t say flat, though! There has been very little really flat land in the prairies so far. The winds were blowing, sometimes behind us; other times in our face etc. The sun was high all day, and I found it quite hot; I even carried my camelback for water.

We did stop for lunch in some shade, and were invited by the owner of the home to come sit in the shade of a shed, and to use the garden hose to water down. Rather nice, I must say. We pulled into Youngstown about 5:30, and are camping in the town park, which has a cooking shelter where Monique and Cassie set up their tents (free standing ones). This turned out to be necessary, as the winds picked up to almost gale force shortly after we arrived. My tent, unfortunately, has to be pegged down, so I found the most sheltered spot I could to set up.

The roads today were much, much better than yesterday, thankfully. I actually called Murray Goring last night, to see if he remembered whether the shoulders would improve. We were strongly tempted to head back down to Hwy 1, and put up with the traffic. However, this morning, we did a “secret ballot” vote, and it turned out we all opted to try one more day with the secondary highway. We were really glad we did, as the shoulders were great, and we felt safe all day.

We cooked spaghetti for supper, and are now heading for an early night. Finally!